Before Beasts, There Was Water
by LoweFantasy
Summary: Kai should have burned to death. Somehow, he wasn't, but Dranzer has vanished, his body is going through some sickly changes, and Max has jumped overboard and vanished into the depths of the sea. Ayah's song has done more to Kai and Max than just given them a power boost to survive Cain, and no one knows what, why, or whether they will live through it.
1. Beasts Series Order

Order of the "Before Beasts" series:

1\. Sound

2\. Fire

3\. Wind

4\. Water

5\. Metal

6\. Storms

7\. Lightning

8\. Ice

9\. Light

10\. Time

(freaking site keeps breaking down my chapters to code. X.X Sorry about that. I fix.)


	2. Man Overboard

Book 4

Before Beasts, There was Water

By LoweFantasy

In Previous Books: _Kai has kept it a secret from his team that what the Abbey had really been training him into wasn't just to become a beyblading pawn to his grandfather, but as a ninja-like, beyblade armed assassin. Kai has killed before, but intends to keep his skill and past buried and forgotten-until an unknown beyblader and a mysterious girl sing out, not only Tyson and Max's bitbeasts, but their souls as well. The singing girl, named Ayah, turns out to be just as much a prisoner as Tyson and Max's souls and nearly dies when she tries to avoid stealing Ray's soul as well. Not knowing she has survived, her captors leave Ayah alone long enough to give Kai a map to Tyson and Max's souls, to which he uses his bad-a beyblade assassin's skills to break in, slice the Achilles tendons of guards, avoid armed men, and escape with the souls and bitbeasts of his team mates._

 _In the second book, Kai has hopes that his incursion has been unnoticed, but he is soon distracted by his teammates adoption of the abandoned, injured Ayah, who is as beautiful as she is mysterious. Kai is not so quick to forget her inhuman abilities to control sound and sing out human souls. It doesn't help that he finds he isn't as immune as he'd like to be to her beauty and kindness, which he attributes to her inhuman qualities. When Tyson throws a homemade tournament for his birthday, Kai pays little attention to it, until Ayah leads him to a dark flight of stairs where another assassin, trained in the Abbey just as Kai was, is closing in for their kill. At the last minute Kai smashes their sharp assassin beyblades with Dranzer, but in the fight something strange happens and Kai is overwhelmed by Dranzer's explosion of flame. Ayah insists she just heard something with her strange, ultra sharp hearing, but as the flames die down and Kai finds himself once more in her arms, he finds himself trusting her less than ever. Nothing will harm his teammates, even if they happen to be gorgeous, gentle, and soft._

 _Come the opening of the third book, Kai is in the hospital suffering from severe burns. He demands to know what his ex-fellow Abbey assassins had to do with Ayah, and she doesn't know, but she is determined to stop them from harming the BladeBreakers. She offers to heal Kai, and in the process, lures him into a three day slumber. When he wakes up, not only is Ayah gone, his burns have completely healed, the president of the United States has been assassinated, and another assassin is waiting for him._

 _Kai is kidnapped and taken to a secret, underground bunker held by none other than a winged man who claims to be of the same species as Ayah, and who intends to use the abandoned Abbey assassins to clear the world of humankind so his own can flourish. Ayah is to be his Eve. But Kai, not keen on being anyone's captive, smashes his way to Ayah with the help of the also captive Tala. What Ayah and this...black angel are is made clear and Kai must defeat Cain, who so easily cowed the once fearless Abbey assassin's with his ability to kill if anyone on Earth is to survive. With the help of the Bladebreakers (who appear out of the blue because they're obsessive-compulsive friends like that and aren't likely to leave one of their own in trouble), along with the boosting ability of Ayah's voice, Kai burns Cain to death, but at the cost of burning himself as well._

1

He came to when water started going down his lungs. His consciousness whirled as his sense of direction flipped end over end. Water threw him like solid arms. He heard Tyson coughing from nearby, and suddenly his friend was there, pounding on his back in galaxy size bursts of pain.

But it worked. The water left his lungs. Once his lungs were certain they were getting air, darkness took him once more.

The next time he woke up wasn't much better. This time it was because he was freezing, and Kai didn't consider himself 'freezing' lightly. Being raised by the uncaring Abbey in the snows of Russia would do that.

He curled in on himself, trembling as he hadn't since he was a child. Someone must have packed snow about him and left him in subzero temperatures, but there was sunlight through his closed eyelids. Steeling himself, he pushed them open.

To see, not snow at all, but the open ocean, clear skies, and the bandaged, bloody forms of Ray, Max, Tala, and Tyson. Ray held a slender black figure against his chest, and from the mass of bushed up white hair, it could only be Ayah. If it weren't for that, he would have just closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and figured out a way to get himself moving so he could find a god forsaken blanket on whatever boat they had dragged him onto. Alas, a displeasure somehow colder than his feverish body moved him to speak.

"Ray…" his voice cracked. In the time it took to clear his throat, Tyson jumped to him and yanked Kai up into an unwelcomed hug.

"No touching," he growled through chattering teeth as he pushed at Tyson's head. He found it difficult, seeing the boy had several cuts that had yet to stop oozing running up into his hair. Max, who leaned against a railing, gave a tired smile, though Tala didn't move. He had slumped against the railing as well, his eyes were close, so it was likely that he wasn't conscious. At least the blood spot on his bandages didn't look too large, and he at least had escaped looking like he had been thrown through a cloud of barb wire like the others.

"You're alive!" Tyson cried.

"You think?" His quavering arms did nothing against Tyson's crowing happiness, though, and he had to make due with waiting till Tyson was done. "Oy, Ray, is she conscious?"

"No. Why?"

"Because girls who were raped tend to not care for guys touching them."

Tyson's happy chortles cut short. All smiles vanished. Ray's face fell, then abruptly turned a sort of purple and his lips curled.

"He—how do you—"

"Just let her go."

"No! She's like ice! Besides, it isn't like this stupid ferry has beds or anything."

Kai groaned for a whole new reason. No beds meant no blankets.

Tyson finally let go of him and Kai had to struggle against the tremors to stay upright. "Dude, you going to be alright? I mean, you're burning up like an egg in the summer!"

Max moaned. "Tyson, metaphors. Work on them!"

"I'm surprised you're even coherent," said Ray. "With a fever like that…"

Kai just shuddered. "Whatever. Doesn't anyone have a coat?" Cold. So cold.

"Maybe, if Tyson hadn't run off as he usually does," said Ray with a good natured smile.

"Hey, it's a good thing we did, or Kai and Ayah would be toast!" Tyson puffed up his chest, grinning. "My instincts are never wrong. We're freaking heroes! I bet you're wondering how we found you, huh?"

"Not really," said Kai as he lowered himself to his side, hoping against hope that the floor would somehow work to conserve body heat. If he didn't figure out something soon—no, he was not about to cuddle with anyone, period.

"Ta-dah!" Tyson flashed out a vaguely familiar device with a grid format green screen. "Remember this little beauty? It's Chief's bitbeast detector! He amped the voltage to the max to broaden the, uh, sensor thing, and since Dranzer's already in the system, it zipped in like so and all there was left to do was find a boat! Granted, we had to leave it off so it didn't drain all its juice, but freaking sweet, right?"

Kai just clenched his jaw to try and steady his shaking head, but his teeth only clattered like dice in a wooden box. It hurt. The cold hurt so bad.

"Kai?"

"J-jacket."

"You want to borrow my jacket? Uh, sure, but it's kind of got blood all over it."

Kai didn't care. He took it and pulled it around him till his knuckles popped from the effort. But he might as well have wrapped tissue paper about him for all the good it did.

But another detail had drifted across his mind. It had cropped up the same time he had seen Ray holding Ayah, and it had been to Max who sat besides them. Usually the kid was hyper even when Tyson showed signs of wearing down, but he slumped against the railing. Now that Kai returned to it, he realized the usually talkative Max had only said a few words since his waking.

"How's Max?" he managed to push out.

Tyson frowned, probably confused as to why Kai asked him instead of Max himself. "Fine as the rest of us. Why?"

Kai figured that would have to do and tried to find another way to curl tighter. A fear had begun to bubble up in him. Why was he so cold? They said this was a fever, but he had never experienced a fever like this. His mind was still here, sharp and clear, and usually he could feel the heat of his own body through the cold, but there was only ice. He hadn't a clue what heat Tyson spoke of, and the only reason he believed him was because the jacket, which should have been warmed by Tyson's body heat, had been cool to the touch.

But this…this was painful.

"Wa-wasn't I on fire?" Maybe these were burns deeper than before—burns inside of him; burns he couldn't see on his skin.

"That's the other cool part!" continued Tyson, ignorant to Kai's growing panic. "You totally were! But then this sort of crazy winged black thing rose up from Cain, and you fell down, totally still on fire, but then Max came up from the beach and he totally _brought the freaking ocean with him!_ Draciel and him were, like, totally one, sort of, I don't know. But Max looked so awesome! He waved Draciel forward along with the wave and it squashed the black thing and put you out like that! Yeah, he sort of nearly drowned us all, but Ray somehow got us all out with, like…" Tyson stopped to frown. "How did you get us out, Ray?"

Kai couldn't see Ray's reaction. He had clenched his eyes in a desperate attempt to keep back his frantic thoughts. It was so cold—so cold—his very bones were trying to shake loose from his flesh. Having experienced hypothermia in mass quantities in his youth, he knew that by this point his shivering should have stopped, if nothing because of weariness. But even then his mind shouldn't be this aware—he shouldn't be so awake! It hurt!

He crunched inward harder, bringing his knees to his forehead, ignoring the discomfort of his arms digging into his gut.

"Yo, Kai, you alright man?"

Kai tried to tell him to shut up, but his jaw jabbered against his collar bone and bit down hard on his tongue. He let out a muffled yelp of pain.

"Whoa, Kai, spread out, get some air—"

When Tyson's cold hand touched him, he reflexively slapped out against it. He heard Tyson gasp.

"Guys, we need ice—"

"No!" Kai cried. He didn't need to think of the weakness it displayed. If they dipped him in ice, he really would die. He knew it from the bottom of his gut, more sure than anything in the world, he would freeze to death. "I'm fine!"

"Dude, I could have gotten blisters from your hand! I'm surprised you're not steaming!"

He heard a shuffle and another hand—possibly Max, which he slapped at too and all but yelled, "Leave me alone!"

Max swore. "You're not kidding Tyson. But I don't think we're going to find ice on this thing."

"Then rope. We can dip him in the ocean—"

"No!" He fought to uncoil himself free, but his muscles has seized up. They spasmed and protested against his orders. "NO!"

"Ayah? Guys, she's awake!"

Kai didn't care. As long as she drew the attention away from him while he got his body to _listen_. He had to run—he had to hide, stop them from trying to kill him, good intentions be damned.

"Ayah?"

A pair of hands reached through his hair, even colder than Tyson's. He tried to hit those aside too, but his arms wouldn't uncramp far enough to reach that high.

Just above the noise of his chattering bones, he heard her hushing to him.

"It's okay. You're going to be all right." Her fingers twined down to cup his head. A breath of air, bringing with it the scent of cinnamon rolls, told him her lips were just over his ear. They were warm. Blessedly, blessedly warm. "It will pass. Hush. It's okay, I think I hear Dranzer with you. You told me once she's never burned you before, even when you were a child."

He opened his mouth to say but she had burnt him just a few days ago, but his teeth once more caught to his tongue and he tasted blood.

"Shh, shh." The warm lips traced around his ear, and he shuddered for them. He wanted them all over him, he wanted her to touch every inch of his freezing skin with the warmth until the pain went away.

But she started to sing, and there was nothing magical about it this time. It was just the voice she used to speak with, singing more beautifully than any girl had a right to. It carried the tune of a lullaby he thought he might know. And as she sang, the more her warm breath puffed over him.

As his panic subsided, the cold did as well, though just enough to uncoil his knotted body and calm the worse of the tremors. Without his knowing she had eased his head onto her lap, which now how the proper warmth that another body should have. With the relaxing of his muscles came an overwhelming fatigue. The very smell of her was warmth.

"Max! What the heck are you—MAX!"

A loud splash jolted Kai awake. His eyes flew open to see Ray and Tyson throwing themselves against the railing, starting to climb.

And there was no Max.

"Man overboard!" screamed Tyson, even as he tossed himself over as well. The floorboards beneath Kai vibrated with footsteps and black dressed assassins started to appear, some holding life buoys.

As Ray dove over, Kai struggled upright and to his feet and managed to stagger to the railing. Even as he got one foot up and felt a hand tugging back on his shirt, a wave of water splashed up on him.

He couldn't even call it cold anymore. It could only be liquid agony.

He was hardly aware of being pulled back from the railing, screaming.

And then the darkness took him once more.


	3. Too Vulnerable for Help

**Oh my gosh, I can, like...not wake up today, no matter what I do. I'm super sensitive to caffiene, but even half a Monster hasn't done the trick. And knowing my luck, I'll be unable to sleep tonight because of said Monster...ugh...life fail.**

 **But, on the plus side...KAI! Oh wonderful, sexy, bad-a Kai who thinks he's all hard core but is really just a squishy softy on the inside.**

2

He woke up in time to stop Tyson from admitting him to the hospital by walking off the ship by himself, despite what his abused and also bleeding leg told him. He didn't need to ask why Tyson looked like death. A bright orange rescue helicopter flew over them as they stepped off onto the dock of a bay in Tokyo. Kai still felt like he was freezing, but it had been put off enough for him to walk—only just. Even so, he didn't think it very important with current circumstances.

One of which included being unable to wake Tala or Ayah up.

"They're both so cold," said Ray, though he held Ayah in his bandaged arms as he said so. "I think she's turning blue—I can't tell if she's breathing!"

Kai put a finger to her neck. They stood at the parking lot of the boatyard, waiting for Tyson's grandfather or an ambulance to get there, whichever came first. The black clothed assassins had vanished into thin air. Only a few stopped by to thank them for their rescue before running off.

"She still has a pulse." Kai couldn't help but feel Ray's apprehension. Her skin did look a bit too tinted to be just pale. He leaned his face over her mouth. "Breathing too. What happened?"

"You know how she healed my fingers?" said Ray.

Kai groaned. "You don't have to say anymore." And he didn't. He could already see Ayah draining herself dry in attempts to stem the majority of the bleeding of his teammates. Their stained clothes bore witness to the amount of blood they had been losing.

"How can you guys be talking like this?" said Tyson, his voice hoarse from shouting. He sat on the sidewalk while holding Tala's knees up like Ray told him in order to help with bloodflow. His teeth still chattered like Kai's, despite having been in the sun for an hour now. "Max vanished into the ocean—he just jumped off—what could, how did—he could be dead! We've got to do something!"

"Like what?" asked Kai, tense as a drawstring. "Call in the Coast Guard? Dive in after him? Launch Dragoon over the waves so he can drown in the water with him?"

Tyson paled faster than a street light. "Take that back."

"What?"

"That he—that Max—look, something screwy must have gone with him with Draciel after the waterworks like you with the fire, he's probably just floating around somewhere or in some sort of magic bubble, he can't have…he shouldn't have…"

"Tyson," said Ray, his face twisting with emotion. "Of course there's always hope."

Kai said nothing. He had to, else he'd just spew horrible nastiness at Tyson when he really wanted to be spewing it at himself. What the hell was that business with the water? He could have helped Ray and Tyson look for Max, maybe if there had been three of them—but even as he had walked off the boat he had kept to the center of the dock, trembling at the idea of even a splash of water touching him. As he thought of it, the earlier chill crept up from within him, threatening to double him over.

"Max is fine. He's going to be fine," Tyson said to himself, even starting to rock a bit as he started up a sort of prayer. "He'll be fine. He has Draciel with him. Draciel wouldn't let him drown."

 _Dranzer wouldn't have burnt me so badly,_ thought Kai, clenching his jaw as he remembered. Bitbeasts didn't save you from the inevitable. Their power was based off of the will of the blader. Even the most powerful bitbeast couldn't save your life from without its unspinning blade, and he was fairly certain Max hadn't thought to launch Draciel before he jumped into the water.

Though Tyson's question as to why Max had jumped could be anyone's guess. Inwardly, Kai hoped Tyson's weird bitbeast theory was right. Because if Kai had to accept that Max had jumped to his death mere feet away from him…

The cold wracked at him, and he crumpled. He tried to disguise it as just sitting down next to Tyson to rest his swollen and bleeding leg, but he might not have even bothered. Tyson's thoughts were still far out at sea, and Ray's attention was too the unmoving girl in his arms.

"So these bruises…" Ray traced some about her jaw. "He…"

"Don't think about it," warned Kai. "He's dead."

"But you killed him before Drigger could—"

"Don't. Just don't. Drigger and you saved us from Max's water, didn't you? That should be enough."

Ray fell silent. Kai watched his fingers gently follow the trail of bruises around her face to what little the black assassin's uniform showed of her neck and restrained the urge to smack Ray's hand aside. "Don't you think she's been touched enough without her permission?"

Ray flinched back with a scowl. "What's your problem?"

"Oh, take your pick. But keep in mind that I was the one who found her, and for your information she didn't have to tell me she was raped. Seeing was enough."

Ray must have understood, for he kept his hands occupied with merely holding her on his lap. This small need satisfied, Kai closed his eyes and focused on make believing he was as toasty as a dip in a hot bath. That was exactly what he was going to do when he finally made it to Tyson's house. He'd boil himself alive if he had to. This stupid, crippling chill wouldn't cost him another teammate.

"Bitbeasts are spirits," said Ray some time later.

Kai didn't respond, but allowed Ray to continue. He didn't want to risk biting his already sore tongue again saying something that didn't need to be.

"That means their incorporeal," he continued. "Drigger…Drigger didn't save you. His blade got washed away with the water. I don't know why Tyson thinks we somehow saved you."

Kai was about to ignore this, but then it hit him like a tank. "You—you don't have Drigger?"

Ray wouldn't look at him. He had even turned his head so sharply that Kai couldn't even make out the barest hint of his face.

"The water just pulled out naturally," said Ray quietly. "I just grabbed you two as it tried to pull you out with Drigger."

Cold. It made it so hard to breathe. He had failed two times over. Drigger wasn't just stolen this time, he was lost—lost at the bottom of the ocean.

"I tried looking for him," said Ray, now at the edge of tears. "Before we left. Max even helped me out, but I think—I think whatever made Max jump into the ocean set in then. He shouldn't have been in the water, he kept just standing there and falling into this daze, and we were all bleeding really bad and—"

"Enough," said Kai, and Ray clammed up.

The ambulance whirled in with Grandpa Granger's old family Toyota on its tail. Kai watched in a daze as the now familiar play of paramedics flowed out and took up Tala. They brought out two stretchers, but the boys somehow convinced the paramedics that Ayah was just asleep, hoping they hadn't just condemned her to death by doing so. Tyson's grandfather, who had come up in the Toyota van (Granger Mobile) was in such a state at the sight of their bloody, makeshift bandages and clothes that he could only jabber something about what happened before falling silent at Tyson's dead look.

"They'll find ol' Maxie, T-man. Don't you worry."

"I'm not," said Tyson, though everything about him spoke to the contrary as hefted Ayah between him and Ray.

When they rolled up to the hospital, Grandpa Granger got out to help them to the ER, but Kai stayed put with Ayah slumped over him. Tyson and Ray stood at the doorway, bemused.

"I'm fine," said Kai.

"Dude, you're as cut up as we are!" said Tyson.

"You…Dragoon protected me from the brunt of it." Kai turned his head. "They're just scratches. And someone's got to help the old man with Ayah."

Ray heaved a sigh. "Leave him. We can always truss him up and drag him in later when my arms are more useful. Really, if Ayah hadn't been so light…"

And they left him in blessed relief. Soon, however, Grandpa Granger returned. He glanced back at Kai in the rearview mirror and Kai did his best to look as aloof as ever, despite his dire want to tell the old man to crack the heat on high. It was still summer. He didn't have to give him more reason to try and get him into a hospital where they would most likely dump Kai in ice.

"Is there anything we need to get on the way home?" he asked, all warmth and gentleness rarely shown to Kai by any other adult.

And for that reason alone, Kai made an effort to give an equally polite, "No."


	4. Freezing

3

His leg had had enough of him. The moment he stepped out of the Granger Mobile, it crumpled. His arms had already cramped up with cold by then, and he barely managed himself upright on his good leg in time for Grandpa Granger to rush around and offer a shoulder. His eyebrows flew up on touching Kai.

"Whoa, you're hot! And not in a good way!"

"I'm fine, really," said Kai. "I just need to clean up. Look to Ayah. She's freezing." And she was, but her heart rate had been normal, along with her breathing, and her cuts had been minimal compared to the others.

Though the old man gave a very Tyson like frown, he didn't say anything as he helped Kai to the bathroom anyways and, after carrying in the unconscious Ayah, brought him a dojo-sized first-aid kit and a fresh change of Tyson's clothes.

"Those black threads are sweet," he said, clicking his fingers, albeit somewhat lacklusterly, at Kai's assassin's gear. "You'll give me the story behind them, yeah?"

"Sure." Kai could hardly stay upright. His want for the hot water had turned to a need.

Thankfully, the old man left, shutting the door behind him. A great gust of breath flew from Kai and he stumbled to the tub. His hand trembled as he turned on the water as hot as it could go. He waited, shaking so bad he started to cave in on himself once more, but afraid of touching the water before it got hot.

 _I can't become hydrophobic,_ he thought as he steeled himself and put a finger beneath the running water. He hissed at the contact, but it wasn't nearly as painful as the sea.

He waited. And waited. Steam gathered on the ceiling and fogged the mirror and facet. Soon he was breathing it in, but the most the water ever got was tolerable. He had little room to be grateful that he could at least touch water without pain as his freezing body wreaked its revenge for a failed promise of warmth.

"Shut up," he hissed between chattering teeth. He had his hands and forearms beneath the running water, but that's all it was, even as steam clouded his vision. Water. Not even luke warm.

At last, he turned it off. The fear returned with friends, coiling him worse than the ice.

 _What now?_

He couldn't go out like this. Grandpa would definitely take him to the hospital, and besides, the old man had enough to worry about with Ayah. Kai could hardly move for the cold, let alone walk on his poor abused leg, which had probably popped through all its stitches. Even if he did manage to make it to the kitchen on his own without the old man noticing, he wouldn't have the patience to boil water. Besides, for all he knew, it would only be luke warm, if the hottest water from the furnace only felt a degree over tolerably cold.

Dismayed, Kai crumpled to the floor, fighting for breath, bones rattling once more.

 _God, it hurts. I'm going to die. I have to die._ Please, let him not have to live through this.

Just on the edge of hopelessness, Ayah's voice drifted from his memory…

' _It's okay, I think I can hear Dranzer…'_

"Dranzer," he panted. "Dranzer…please…"

The response was almost immediate.

 _Fire._

It was mad. It was insane. But Kai had reached the breaking point, and desperation was more powerful than any logic. Murmuring his bitbeast's name for a focus, he clenched his jaw and pushed back the cold one last time. His muscles opened like rusty hinges, but they still opened. He stood, staggering to the door, bracing himself against the wall.

 _Please let old man Granger be gone,_ he prayed.

He wasn't in the hallway. Somehow, Kai managed to wall-limp himself to the nearest door outside. Once there, he knew all too well where the wood pile was. Tyson's only version of training outside of launch practice was chopping wood, as Grandpa Granger had taught him. _Long Granger family secret, h_ e'd always say. Even now, in pain, Kai managed to think blithely, _some secret._

An eternity of limping and unsticking his frozen limbs later, he made it to the side of the house where the wood waited in a messy heap. Trembling, throat raw from panting, he took hold of two logs and tossed them as far as he could from the pile. He fell into a daze as he tossed and shoved wood like a man on the edge of a coma makes his bed.

It was only till he had a decent 'bed' of wood that it occurred to him that he hadn't the means to light it. He nearly crumpled then and there if it weren't for the mad vibration of his blade in his pocket. He took her out and unhooked his launcher.

 _If this doesn't work_ , he thought. _I'm done._

He only managed to lift her high enough to avoid hitting his feet and pulled the rip cord. It had to be his most pathetic launch in history, but she spun and wobbled her way to the wood.

 _Burn,_ he willed with every part of his freezing, screaming soul. _Please. Just one more time._

The blue blade tipped, sparked, then weakly kicked into the logs. With one last push of desperate will, Dranzer at last burst into a small, spinning ball of flame.

The logs, kept beneath a roof through the summer monsoon season, were dry and old. They caught fire readily, quickly growing black as the flame caught and grew higher. It just went to show how far Kai had gone that he didn't even try to rescue his blade from the flames as it slowed to a spin and fell amongst the coals. All he could comprehend was the warmth—the heat.

Falling to his knees, he threw his hands into the growing flames.

The cold recoiled. The fire, though, didn't burn. His skin didn't blacken or blister.

That was all the encouragement Kai needed to crawl atop the pier and curl up amidst the flames. His black clothes instantly caught flame, filling the area with smoke. He kicked off his shoes and gasped in relief as the fire quickly returned feeling to his all but dead feet.

Finally. _Finally_. The cold, the pain…was leaving.

He thought he could smell the fire. Not the burnt logs or the smoke, but the sheer flame itself. But before he could put a name to the scent, his exhausted mind slipped away into relieved, dreamless sleep.


	5. Hatching

4

A pang of hunger woke him. But he was so warm and so very, very sleepy. It was still dark, so it couldn't be time to wake up yet.

It knocked him up later. He had the impression he had slept for some time, but the cold was still so fresh in his mind. He didn't want to leave. Even as his hunger urged him to open his eyes, his mind only came up with more reasons to dread waking up. Max was lost at sea, most likely dead. Ayah had possibly killed herself healing his friends. Ray's Drigger had been washed out to sea, probably to meet Max at the bottom. It was all too likely that Tala had fallen into shock from blood loss on the ship and died as well. Tyson would…Tyson…

He woke up again, and the third time his hunger would not be ignored. It was ravenous, like a wolf had taken up his stomach.

So he groaned and opened his eyes. When only darkness met him, he grew confused, wondering if he had opened his eyes or not. Then he tried to move, to reach towards something that might light up so he could tell, but his arm hit a wall. The moment he hit it, he realized it was all around him, cupping him, holding him like a bird in an egg.

And he wasn't sure how he was still _breathing._

The more he woke, the more he started to panic. Had he really crawled into a fire? Was this death then? It had to be, everything felt so—off. There were parts of him touching things he didn't know could touch things and senses that confused him, and the growing claustrophobia of having his knees jammed up to his chest cut off his breath like a hand over his throat.

And just as suddenly, one of his flailing arms punched through the hard something. It cracked, or more like crunched. Light poured in along with a dagger of cold. Thankfully, a normal cold, one that only graced his skin, just like a cool breeze on wet flesh.

Exactly, actually. By the little light he could tell some sort of…slime covered him, thick like jelly, and the consistency of egg whites.

Something chinked into the little opening above him. There was a shout, a large crack, and Kai's hard little cage cracked in two.

He found himself spilling out in a slippery slide of goo and into a large mess of coals. He had only the time to see Tyson stunned and pale with a hoe in his hands before his face met coal.

"KAI!"

Despite the slime, and the fact that Kai just _had_ to be naked, Tyson pulled him up into a tight hug, half sobbing, half laughing.

"What the hell! You're alive! I knew it, I knew you were alive! I knew you were in there, I knew it! And…oh…"

Silence was never a good thing coming from Tyson.

Desperate to see what kind of bizarre nightmare he had woken up to, Kai pushed himself off from Tyson to look down at himself, now covered in soot-slime mud. As he did so, what felt like a second pair of arms folded out from his back. They fell beneath their own weight and spilled out across more coals. Kai saw scarlet.

Tyson let loose another strange, drug-high sort of cackle. "Oh my gosh, is that a tail too?"

Too? What else was the first…oh.

Slimy, long scarlet wings spread out behind him. And, as he craned his neck back, he saw the weird tickling on his rear end was indeed an equally slimy, short feathered tail fanning out from the end of his spine. Some of his feathers still stuck to the inside of what could only be the still standing half of his cocoon of sorts, which basically looked like a misshapen egg that had been forged out of coals.

Tyson's voice squeaked as he cried for Ray, unable to keep his hands of Kai as he pulled him from the slimy coal and attempted to right him on his feet, but the team captain had fallen into a stunned stupor and his sleepy legs were little better than rubber.

Ray crashed out of the back door and came around the corner to the wood pile so quick, he tripped, and only his cat-like reflexes saved him. He had a bandanna tied over his hair, a plain T-shirt, and a pair of jeans with its pockets stuffed with rags. Cleaning day? He nearly tripped again on seeing Kai.

"Kai?"

"Gawk later, man, he's shaking like a reed, we gotta get this junk off him."

Water passed through his mind, and he wondered if he should be afraid. But, somehow, feeling the normal chill on his skin, he wasn't. Though he couldn't think much of anything past the great stone of shock. Had he just…he looked behind him as Ray and Tyson took an arm of his over their shoulders. The weird coal shell thingy was still there. So were the slimy appendages collecting soot and dirt as Ray and Tyson dragged him around and into the house.

"Tyson, you know what this means—" started Ray.

"Don't get me started, buddy! Once we get him to his feet we have to check out the beach for Max! I mean, if Kai could come out of fire like this, Max has got to be alive!"

"And Ayah, she could…wow, this is…"

"Yeah, man. I just can't get my mind around it—just give the door a kick."

They had pulled Kai through the house, not to the bathroom which they always used, but through what could only be his grandfather's bedroom at the back of the house. Tyson and Ray dragged him to the door on the other side, trailing mud and slime and tiny flecks of downy scarlet across his grandfather's rug.

"My gramps has this huge old fashion tub, you know the kind that has a space for a fire underneath it that you can feed from outside? We're going to need a lot of water and a lot of heat. I'll take care of the fire if you'll take care of him, I don't think he's going to be moving on his own any time soon."

The door slid open to reveal what Tyson said there would be: an old world Japanese bathroom, inlaid with stone and set with an old, huge, water worn tub high off the ground and set in stone. A spigot stood in place of the sink.

"Gramps uses it for 'training.'" Tyson snorted. "More like free slave labor. At least I know I can blow up a mean fire. Upsah daisies, Kai-chan!"

Kai grunted. A part of him had the coherence to be insulted by that.

"Wait! We should warm up some water first. I mean, it looks like, I don't know, him and Dranzer—he's fire, dumping him in cold water probably isn't a good idea."

"Good thinking, Ray. You get to dumping the water, I'll get to the fire."

Tyson flew out with random spurts of happy noise. Ray grinned after him as he settled Kai against the wall. He hesitated before making an attempt to organize his wet wings so they would fit in the bathroom, or at least be out of the way of tripping, but the slime made them slip from his fingers like wet meat. He had to make do with filling up the bucket and stepping over them to get to the tub. As Kai watched and shivered, the hunger twisted at him.

"Food?" he managed to croak.

"Hungry?" Ray flashed him a gentle smile. "Can you wait till after I fill up this tub?"

Honestly, Kai didn't know. He could only give a sort of dismayed, weak sort of grunt and try to pull up his leg to give him some sort of dignity in his nakedness.

"Right. Hold on." Ray finished filling the bucket, hopped across the wings, and tossed it in. "Okay. I'll be right back."

The exhausted, shell-shocked daze made the minute or so Ray was gone pass in a blink of an eye. A cold sweet bun in a wrapper was stuffed into Kai's hand.

"Can you eat it on your own?"

When Kai managed to glare, Ray actually laughed.

"Yep! That's our captain! Still, if you need help—"

Even in this state, his pride would not allow him to sink any further. With the same strength it took to break through the shell, he lifted up the dumpling and devoured it. He wanted to ask for more, but Ray was once more deep into filling up the bath, and the comforting smell of flame, something he had never been able to smell quite like it before, had come over his exhausted form like a mother's perfume.

When Ray finished filling up the tub, he got more food for Kai, which he ate with gusto to rival Tyson while the water heated. When the ceiling began to fog with steam, the window outside snapped open and Tyson's face popped in.

"How we doing?"

Ray dipped his hand in and shook it. "Keep it coming. I think I can put him in now."

Kai blinked. Was Ray planning on bathing him? Wait, what was going on? Why was he covered in slime in the first place? What had gone on with him? Where was his blade? Where was Ayah?

Ray had to angle himself around the wings to get his arms under Kai's armpits. Kai did his best to walk himself, but his legs still floundered out beneath him and the weight of his weak wings unbalanced him to the point he feared they would tear out his spine.

And then Ray finally had him in, and oh blessed, the water was actually warm.

He fell unconscious then, lulled by the heat on his poor shaken body. He was vaguely aware of Ray pouring water over his head and carefully scrubbing his face. He slowly came to as Ray continued his administrations. The old voice of his pride sparked up from the ashes.

"I can clean myself…" he mumbled.

"Ah, you must be coming to."

"Hn." Kai blinked slowly at the sooty, soapy water. His red wings bunched up over the edges. Half in wonder, half in fear, he reached out and poke one, and jumped when he felt it. Then, as Ray handed him a rag and soap, he took it upon himself to clean the wing too far from Ray's reach. His fingers trembled through his own feathers and he shivered at the sensation of their quills moving in the flesh. The wing was a sinewy thing, though, with knobby joints and lean, narrow muscle. No wonder they felt so weak. He'd have to build up the muscle. Speaking of which…

He lifted up his arms and got a better look at himself. "I've lost weight."

"Makes sense," said Ray as he wiped an arm across his sweating brow. "Those wings had to be made of something."

"How long was I in there?"

"About a week, so I guess that could be why too. With the way you put away that food, I take it you're still hungry."

"Famished."

"Good! Perhaps Tyson will actually eat now too. With Max gone and you...well, after this, I'll prepare a feast!"

Kai sighed. "I can fend for myself, mother."

"Sure sure. Would you like some pants or shall this fending be alla'naked?"

Kai splashed Ray with sudsy grey water. Ray jumped and laughed for the second time, which made Kai smile. So Tyson and Ray really had been worried about him. Even after the years they had together, it still felt so new to him to have someone worrying about him. It was nice.

He wanted to say he was sorry for concerning them, but, then, that would be an idiotic thing to say. There wasn't much he could have done to predict this. In fact, the whole reason he got like this in the first place was because…

"Where's Ayah?"

Ray's laughter died off, but his smile didn't fade away completely. "She…well, I guess you could say she's going through the same thing as you did. At least, that's what we can hope to believe now. Mind you, we don't have a freaking clue what's going on, but you're alive…God, you're alive."

Since Ray sounded like he might just cry, Kai happily turned the topic back to his original question. "Okay, but where _is_ she?"

"Oh, under some floorboards in the pantry, it's this sort of cellar. Yeah, I know, but I think she might've gone down there because it was safe and quiet. I mean, if she's changing like this." Ray pulled back his hands from Kai, letting out a shaking breath and eyes glazing. "God, she's alive. And she's going to be beautiful."

"Don't get too excited. You said it yourself, we don't have a clue what's going on."

But with how Ray went on, Kai might as well have not said anything. But he could live with that. Especially if it meant Max really was okay.

 **COMING UP on APRIL 12th! I have an Easter present for my beloved readers. ^.^ I'll be giving my books away for free! My published original works, mind you. Stealing someone else's writing would be like paying someone to go to Disneyland for me so I could say I went to Disneyland. Stupidest thing ever.**

 **Meanwhile, I hope you're enjoying my 'Before Beasts' series so far. If there's anything you don't like, please let me know. As this series is still in the works, I'll be happy to take your thoughts into consideration. Thank you so much for reading!**


	6. A Shell of Sound

5

Once Kai had a spare of Tyson's boxers and sweats on (a slit cut beneath the band in the back for Kai's new tail to poke through), feathers toweled dried, and a large platter of chicken, rice, and cabbage in front of him, Ray and Tyson got cleaned up themselves. As they sat with Kai in the kitchen, they helped each other reapply their bandages over the deeper slashes on they had received from Cain. Ray's left arm took the most time, and Kai was mildly surprised Ray hadn't popped a stitch in hauling himself around.

"You're actually kinda light," said Ray. "Guess you're like Ayah now. Hollow bones."

Then Kai remembered. "You said she was in the pantry?" Without waiting for a reply, he heaved himself onto his shaking, but healed legs and made the few feet to the pantry door. He opened it to find the usual conglomeration of Granger household food goods, but on the floor, where there was usually braided rug, was a lifted trap door barely large enough for one person. There wasn't a ladder, just a small stone lined box deep enough for someone to crouch in. It was probably used for storing roots or pickling goods.

In the dip was a strange silver cocoon with smooth sides played with rainbows like that in a puddle of anti-freeze in the parking lot.

As Kai crouched down, Tyson squeezed in at his side.

"Oh! Oh! Check this out."

"Tyson," said Ray wearily. "Don't."

Ignoring him, Tyson reached passed Kai to the hole in the ground and rapped two knuckles on the cocoon. Two reverberating, metallic 'tings' echoed in the small space.

"It's like a steel drum! How cool is that?"

"Yeah. Stop." Kai pushed him back with a frown. "Did she get into this about the same time I did?"

Tyson shrugged. "She was like that when we came home. Gramps said he turned his back to teach kendo lessons and when he went back to my room, she was gone. I'm kind of surprised she knew it was even there."

Kai dropped back to his rear end, half-forced by the weight of his unfolded wings. He still didn't have the strength to fold them up properly on his back and was considering asking Tyson for a belt to belt them to him, just until he got the energy to start working them.

"Tala?" he asked.

"He's doing alright," said Ray. "Ayah did good healing up important bloodlines on all of us."

"The doctor's were soooo confused," added Tyson with a snort.

Kai felt a poke on one of his wings for the fifth time since he had gotten out of the bath and glared at Tyson.

"I'm not a petting zoo."

"They feel so real, though, it's still wigging me out!"

"That's because they are real," said Ray dryly. "Can you finish tying my arm up please?"

"Oh yeah! Sorry 'bout that, buddy."

Tyson scrambled back up to help Ray, leaving Kai sitting in the doorway of the pantry, frowning down at the silver egg filling the small cellar.

"How are Max's parents?" he asked.

"Max's dad is out on the search with Gramps right now, something about driving a motor boat around the coordinates he jumped in. There's also some people combing the shore in case he got washed up there. We were actually thinking of helping them out when you punched a hole to daylight."

"Guess it's a good thing the pain meds made us sleep in," said Ray with a smile.

"Hn." Kai reached out to brush a finger on Ayah's cocoon. The surface felt smooth as glass and cool to the touch. He thought he could also feel a steady vibration, as though a low hum was coming from within.

"What if Ayah breaks out today too?" said Ray. "We can't leave her."

"But what if Max's broken out? We can't let anyone find him and freak out, especially since he won't even know what's going on. He dropped into the water before Kai even got close to fire, so it's a good chance."

"We don't know anything about when they're suppose to come out, it could be totally different. How about rock paper scissors on who stays with Kai and Ayah?"

Kai grunted and pulled his hand back. "I can handle it."

"You sure? You're still looking a little shaky," said Ray.

"No can do, Captain. I know you, and you're probably lying through your teeth. This isn't time for your pride, we're not leaving you alone when you can barely walk," said Tyson, folding his arm and lifting his chin.

And since he really was tired, and because there was still a plate of food to finish, Kai just pulled himself up and collapsed back into his chair at the table. The plain rice, dry chicken, and raw cabbage tasted better than it should have, and he figured he could clear the platter and still be hungry, which was enough food for a family meal. He's have to refund Gramps for this. He had to feed the black hole which was Tyson, after all.

It was decided that since Tyson had the least injured arms of the two, he'd stay behind and Ray would go. When Ray slipped out a cell phone, probably to try and get a hold of someone on the search team, probably Hillary or Kenny, Kai was reminded of his own cell phone and how he had no idea what had happened to it. The four of them hadn't had much to do with phones over the past week.

"See you guys later," said Ray with an uncertain kind of smile.

"Go save our crazy blond, Ray!"

Ray's smile strengthened a bit. Then he left.

Kai was hoping Tyson would leave him to finish his food in quiet, but that had been a ridiculous hope anyways.

"So what's it like?"

Kai grunted through a mouthful of food, then added. "I'm tired. I'm hungry. And I'm going to have to hide in a trench coat for the rest of my life like a freak. Good-bye any hope of having a normal career."

"Aw, come on, man, you got wings! That means you can probably fly! How cool is that? And you're set to inherit a buttload of money, so why does it matter that you can't slave away at a desk or anything?"

Kai leveled a dry glare at Tyson. "Have I ever struck you as the kind of person to be okay living off of the money earned by a man who earned it with crime and abusing children into killing people?"

Tyson had the decency to look sheepish. "That was just one of his investments, wasn't it? And hey, if it's just there—you're not alone. You got Ayah and soon me and Ray and—"

Kai choked on a piece of chicken he had been chewing. After struggling for a few seconds to not die, he managed to clear his airways. "Excuse me?"

Tyson had that stupid happy look on his face whenever he thought he had come up with the greatest idea the world has ever seen, which was far too often to be healthy. "Well, Emily explained it to us, how we are all descendents of the kinds of people Ayah and that wacko are and how that's why we can work with bitbeasts in the first place, and Max told us about Ayah's song. So, Ayah's sings her thing and we get, I don't know, combined with our bit beasts to awaken as bodacious awesome super beings—"

"You're a moron."

Tyson started, then scowled on level to match Kai's. "Hey! What's your problem?"

"Didn't you hear me when I said I'd have to more or less hide myself for the rest of my life? How do you plan on supporting yourself or any future family you may have with giant wings and a dragon tail? This isn't a cute cartoon or a fairy tale, this is reality, and in reality someone's going to notice the world champion beyblader never taking off his coat even in 100 degree weather. Not to mention you suck at school, so you'd have to do a manual labor or uniform requiring job that doesn't include random pieces of dragon."

"Whoa! Don't knock it till you've tried it! You've barely begun and you're giving up? Kai, you haven't even flown yet! You don't even know what your life has in store for you—"

"Yes, I do." He got up and struggled to the sink for a glass of water. "It's what Ayah's life has been. Fear, loneliness, struggling to survive. The time of her people is up."

"No! It's only begun! If Ayah's voice can reawaken the spirit of the beast and transform people into her kind—"

"Oh, look who's become a scientist."

"Shut up, Kai. You're just a wet blanket, you always have been."

He liked to call it realistic, but if that's what got Tyson to stop talking about it, whatever. He had who knows how many pounds of lost muscle to build up, including that which would help him to stop dragging his wings on the floor behind him like too-long blanket.

"If your life really is going to be as sucky as you say, then I'm definitely won't just abandon you to it."

Kai froze. Had he just heard right? Wait, this was Tyson. Of course he had heard right. He put down his spoon and sighed. "Tyson—"

"Yes, I'm being stupid, don't go making promises without knowing what's involved, yadah yadah. Your opinion is duly noted. But whatever happens after this, we're in it together, so don't you dare try something stupid and Kai-ish like running off on your own to be all moody black-trench coat and fuzzy tail-feathers on your own. After all…" Tyson hesitated, and a bit of color brushed his cheeks. "Ayah, she's…well, until we can, uh…you know what, never mind."

"What?"

"Nothing. Just sticking my big foot in my big mouth."

"No, you seemed to be enjoying your rant. If you're going to dig the hole, have the decency to fall all the way to the bottom."

"Ugh, you're such a jerk! You already know what I'm talking about. It isn't important anyways." The color on his cheeks grew and he looked away. "You know, making winged freak super babies and stuff…"

That actually made Kai smile. If it weren't for the fact that Ayah had been kidnapped to be breeder fodder and raped, he would have laughed. But, somehow, Tyson's rephrasing of it returned the topic to where it should be: somewhere full of promise and family.

Family…Kai had talked big about worrying about their future on their own, but had he ever really considered that he might have a family one day or had he just always thought of himself? But he already knew the answer to that question. Of course he had only thought about himself. He had only stopped thinking of touching people as touching gross, squishy flesh on meeting Ayah, let alone about sex or romance, both of which had always seemed like a far off distant world that he'd be too harsh and cold to experience.

After all, Tyson was the one who knew about the soft things of humanity, like love and friendship. Kai, on the other hand, figured he'd end up abusing or inflicting general misery on whoever had the misfortune to end up with him. That's all his grandfather had taught him, and he hardly remembered his parents. They called it the abuse chain for a reason.

For some reason, that bugged him more than it usually did. Maybe because he still remembered how soft Ayah's kiss had been, even though he had been only partially conscious at the time. He'd only hurt such softness. Make them scream.

He shook himself. He was being ridiculous.

Tyson had been watching him through all this, having only to lean over from his chair to open the fridge, from which he pulled himself out a cola and a pre-made sandwich. Grandpa Granger made them by the dozen. Sandwiches were the majority of the seniors cooking expertise.

"What's up?"

"Nothing," said Kai, swallowing the last of the chicken.

Tyson shrugged. "If you say so." And took a big bite of his sandwich.

 **Author: please let me know what you think! I update at least once a week.**


	7. The Taste of Flame

6

Afterwards, Tyson showed Kai his old Dranzer blade that he had been able to dig out of the coals. The metal had been twisted and warped, and the yellow bit was not only blank of any phoenix, but shattered from the heat. This blade would never spin again.

Ray and Grandpa Granger returned with empty hands, though not exactly dampened spirits. The old man nearly had a small party on seeing Kai up and about (sort of, since when he wasn't eating he was sleeping), and Kai had to put up with another Granger poking at his weak wings and making stupid obvious comments. After a night of heavy sleep, broken by binges of food which he ate in the pantry doorway, watching over the humming egg of Ayah, dawn broke over the Granger household ready to head out on another heavy search for Max. Ray and Tyson decided to trade for the day on Kai/Ayah watch (which annoyed Kai, as he had gained enough strength to walk just fine, thank you), when they were interrupted by a sharp knock at the door.

Max's blond American mother stood at the doorway, accompanied by Max's father, who had deep circles beneath his eyes.

"Where is he?" she asked.

Grandpa Granger blanched. "Max, ma'am? Uh-uh, that's what we're trying to find out—"

"Not my son. Kai. The only sense I can get from my husband is that Kai is somehow the reason you all know my Maxie is still alive."

Kai, who had been in the kitchen when this happened, quietly closed the pantry door along with the little chain lock on the front. He barely understood the onrush of protectiveness that rose in him and made him want to push Max's parents back out the door.

He had managed to somehow pull up his wings to his back when she walked in, all frazzled mother nerves and cool professionalism in one. She raised an eyebrow at the shirtless teenager who stared broodily back.

It took her a full five minutes of pointless chatter for her to figure out that Kai had wings and a tail. Kai couldn't help but wonder what else she had thought the mass of red feathers was. Some pointless cosplay? Because Kai Hiwatari was so into cosplay when his teammate and friend was lost at sea and his worried parents were over. Honestly.

When she reached out to touch them, however, he recoiled. Tyson, Ray, heck, even Grandpa Granger he could stand, but this woman he barely knew, half of the time of which she had been on an enemy team. Add to the fact she was a scientist who spent most of her time overseas studying sport rather than being a mother for her son or a wife and Kai seriously didn't want to see what she would do with this discovery.

"They're real," he said lowly. "Get over it."

Tyson and Ray fluttered in to explain between muttered affirmatives of her husband, but her eyes never left Kai. He began to wish fervently for a shirt—and for everyone to get out of the kitchen and away from the pantry. He didn't like people, and he avoided being around lots of them, more especially in close quarters. But he couldn't very well leave Ayah. What if the woman tried to stick her nails in or break it open? What if she tried taking Ayah with her for experiments or even try to get to Ayah to demand what she did to her son?

"So a girl sings," she said, one eyebrow as high and skeptical as an eyebrow could get. "And suddenly your team captain grows wings?"

"Not exactly—"

"It's a theory—"

But she broke over all of them with a low, closed mouth yell. She whirled on her heel, fists clenched. Her husband flinched horribly.

"This is—we could have been looking for Max. I can't believe you…"

And without another word, she stomped out of the kitchen and out of the house, her husband scrambling to give apologies to them and keep up with her at the same time.

Kai let out a breath as he heard the front door slam.

"Well, that could have gone worse," said Tyson, throwing his arms behind his head and leaning against the doorframe.

"Oh really? How? She might not even let us have anything to do with Max once we find him."

Grandpa Granger, who had been unexpectantly quiet during the whole exchanged, frowned. "Can't say I know what to expect in the wack you lot are in. I'd say we're on the beach team today, little dude."

Tyson wilted, but shrugged. "Better than nothing. Let's get going, Gramps. Got to find Max before she does, or else she'll call him the monster of the lagoon and toss him into a tank!"

"Uh, I find that unlikely, she is the Max-dawgs mom," but Grandpa Granger as he followed Tyson out the door.

Which left a very relieved, almost happy Kai and a quiet Ray alone in the kitchen. Kai returned to the searching of the bare fridge for food. Ray went to unlock the pantry door, not questioning why Kai had done it. Kai figured that, out of all the people who would understand why Kai had done something, it would be Ray. Though what that said about his feelings for Ayah, he didn't care to know. It wasn't like it mattered.

The quiet went unbroken for some time as Ray sat in the pantry, staring down at the metallic silver cocoon, and Kai munched on whatever he could find and thought about strategies of getting more food to the house. His wings were holding up to his back well enough. The bones of his wings seemed to have grooves or curves in them that made it easier to hold them up and folded, which did wonders on easing how he got around.

At one point, he turned to see Ray still in the same spot without moving an inch. That stilled something in him to something unpleasant and chilly, but he didn't know what to do about it, nor did he want to know more. So what if Ray was besotted with her? The whole team was. She was gorgeous, they were immature boys, and she made the perfect sympathetic tragedy. Some guys liked that.

But even Ray wasn't usually this quiet for this long. Kai sighed. He should probably say something. But it could have been Drigger too. Ray had two lost friends to worry about. Maybe he was just taking comfort from the knowledge that the pretty girl he liked would come out eventually.

"Hey…" he started.

But before he could think of what to say, Ray spoke up. "Something's wrong."

Frowning, Kai crossed the room and crouched in the doorway with Ray. The pod looked just as silver as before. Colors still played across the surface with each move of his head.

But then Ray rapped a knuckle on it, just as Tyson had. Instead of a clear ring, though, there was just a solid, dull tap. He rapped in several other places, but with each tap just made Kai tense tighter and tighter.

Finally, he stood. "I'm getting the hoe."

"What if we hurt her?"

"You think I like being carried naked and bathed by you lot? If I was that exhausted without having spent all my energy healing everyone, how do you think she'd be?"

Ray's eyes widened and the corner of his mouth pulled back and paled. "I should get it then—"

"I'm already up. Stay."

Even so, Kai hesitated at the back door. It would be the first time the light of day touched his new body. The dojo walls were high, no one would see him. But would it make it more real to feel the air and sunlight on his feathers?

Shoving those thoughts aside with his anxiety, he opened the door and marched out and around the house. A dull layer of clouds had drifted over the sky, devoiding the world of shadows. He found the short handled hoe not far from the remains of his own coal bed and headed back inside with it. He didn't hand it to Ray, though. The tiger had an injured arm, after all. Even weary as he was, his hand would be steadier.

Neither had to speak their apprehensions. They both knew they didn't know what they were doing. But they also knew they couldn't do nothing.

When Kai spread his hand out on the cool surface of the cocoon, the lack of vibrations reaffirmed his decision. Adjusting his hold on the hoe, he pulled it in and tapped the surface. It didn't break. He gave a heavier whack until he was sure if he hit any harder he risked chopping straight through, but it cracked. He gave a few more ginger knocks before Ray's arms darted in to pull away the shell fracture. Clear goo pulled back with it, revealing a plain of unmistakable pale skin.

They pulled at the rest of the shell with their hands. The odd substance started to liquefy once it hit the floor and eventually vanish.

Before long, wet hair and white feathers were revealed. His heart gave a painful jerk as her unconscious face was finally revealed.

"Ayah," gasped Ray.

Together, they lifted her up and out. Long white wings trailed out after her like a long cloak. As Kai had noticed in himself, she looked to have lost considerable weight. Seeing her ribs and the jut of a hip gave Kai something like physical pain.

And she was naked.

Ray's face went beet red, and even though she had gotten so thin, Kai couldn't ignore her still round, ample breasts and the round curve of her hips and rear.

"Oh…oh my…"

"Get a hold of yourself," Kai snapped, his own face hot. He told the same to himself. It was just a naked girl—a naked girl who need him to not act like a teenage boy for the first time in his life.

Since Ray didn't look like he couldn't decide on whether to keep staring or run for it, Kai was the one who pulled back the sticking strands of her slimy hair and felt at her white neck. A steady pulse pressed back, but even her neck felt like ice to the touch.

"She's alive, but freezing. I think I can see her chest moving. Best we do for her what you guys did to me. I'll help you get her to the bath, then I'll head out and start a fire—"

Ray was too scrambled to even protest to that. It took them both longer than it should have to figure out where to put their hands as they lifted her limp arms over their shoulders.

"We say nothing to Tyson or Max," said Ray.

"I thought that was a given," muttered Kai, staying very focused on the floor to the elder Granger's room.

"How can she look so appealing even covered in slime?"

"Are we really going to have this conversation?"

"Uh, well, I, uh…" Kai thought that would be it. On reaching the bathroom, though, Ray gave a funny little moan. "Oh god, it's getting hard to stand."

Kai stared at him incredulously, but instantly regretted it as it put him once more into the line of sight of the very naked pretty girl between them. So, instead, he snapped his teeth hard and stomped forward, forcing Ray into the cramp space and all but throwing the poor girl into the bath.

"Don't you dare do anything stupid," Kai snarled.

Ray's brilliantly red face twisted with insult. "Who do you take me for?"

"A teenage boy. You don't know how conscious she is, so just don't." Kai didn't add that he'd bash his face in if he even got a whiff of him touching Ayah inappropriately, but since that was an empty threat due to the fact that, unless he walked in on Ray in the act, he had no way of being able to tell if Ray had done anything nefarious.

It wasn't till he was outside on his way to the now very familiar wood pile that he realized he had no idea where the Granger's kept their matches. Instead of heading back inside straightway to start the search, he followed the sounds of splashing water to the outdoor stone oven that sat beneath the tub. Some wood had already been set up in a clean tower against the dojo's wall.

Kai crouched down, eyeballing the coals inside. Last time he didn't have matches, he had used his blade to start a fire. Dranzer was a spirit of fire. Didn't that mean he had become one as well?

He threw a log in, then hesitated. So…what now? And if he did do something, he wouldn't accidentally burn down the Granger dojo, would he? But if he could manage fire, it would be a lot quicker than searching for matches in the house that he may never find.

So, with a sigh, he closed his eyes and felt out himself mentally for any clue as to where to start.

It didn't take him long. A heat burned within him, spreading through his blood in a warm, steady thrum alongside his heartbeat. He recognized the touch of power that he felt whenever summoning Dranzer.

 _Breathe…_

Practicing an old breathing training they practiced in the Abbey, Kai narrowed his focus and breathed all the way down to the depth of his gut.

Then he breathed out—

And tasted flame.

 **Side note,** **I wanted to hear your guy's opinion on something: would you care for an audiobook version of my fanfictions? I got a pretty sweet recording set up and I'm actually not that bad at reading out loud. I got loads of practice in reading to my 10 younger siblings and my husband. I could do it as a youtube channel or a free recording upload thingy on my blog or whatever.**

 **Let me know what you think! You can send me a PM or just review to this. I plan on deleting this note once I've gotten your opinion.**


	8. Slim Pickings

**YO! I got an Easter present for you all that I set up last month. ^.^ For today up until the 18th (so the next five days), both my published books are FREE! :D I love you guys so much! I'm so honored to have your time to read my stories, so please enjoy the best gift I can give with this extra update of Boon and my free books.**

 **For where to find them, just check out my profile! For all you non-fanfiction users, just click on my username. That should take you there.**

7

His eyes snapped open in time to see a great spit of flame dissipating against the front of the stone oven, tongues and petals of it flecking off like sprayed metal.

From inside he heard Ray give a shout. Kai didn't blame him.

 _Did I just…breathe fire?_

The window above the oven snapped open and Ray's head popped out. "What was that?"

Kai blinked. The log inside the oven was untouched. The stonework had protected it. Baffled, stunned, he looked up at Ray with a new concern.

"Is the tub full?"

"No, are you kidding me? I only have one good working arm and you've only been out for five minutes."

"Then hurry, and tell me when you're done." After all, he didn't want to cook Ayah.

Ray nodded and vanished, keeping the window open. Kai, half wishing he had closed it so he could practice this in relative secret (as he always preferred), he shrugged and drew a bit away with another log.

Once more he focused on breathing deep to his gut, down to the heat, and blew out. This time he had his eyes open so he was able to watch the thin stream of flame hiss from his mouth and burst free some two feet from his face. The log exploded with a roaring crackle. Kai stumbled back out of habit, even though the fire didn't burn him, nor did it feel too hot. He even saw raw hot sparks land on his bare arms and chest without harm.

 _Okay, so less breath?_

He tried just breathing out. Nothing happened. But, then, that made sense. If he breathed fire every time he just _breathed out…_

In fact, he had a bit of trouble breathing out the fire without going all the way down to the point of bursting his lungs. It had to come from the belly, from the very warmth of his blood. Two more logs were incinerated to instant coals before he managed something half-strength, even then the log was gone twice as fast as it would under a normally heated fire.

"Kai! It's full!"

Kai hesitated. If he wasn't careful with this…

Hoping more fuel would take away the brunt of the uncontrolled part, he filled the oven with the hardest logs he could find. Then, focusing, even closing his eyes, he lowered himself to the earth, dug deep, and let out a slow, steady breath from the gut.

The hush of flame whipping the air into wind—a crackle—and he opened his eyes to see a fire dancing merrily away in the oven as though it had for hours.

Only then did he manage a self-satisfied smile.

"Okay, that's cool."

"Agreed."

Ray hung out of the window above him, grinning.

Kai raised an eyebrow at him. "Don't you have to climb over Ayah to get out the window?"

"Hey, it's better on this edge of the tub where I don't have to look at her, trust me. Get back up here, I need your help. Gimp arm."

"If she's anything like me, she'll need food." Kai pushed himself up with a groan of effort. His legs wobbled tremulously. Maybe the fire practice now wasn't such a good idea. "I'll make her something. Cover her with a towel and get started."

Ray rolled his eyes. "How about I make her something, being able to cook unlike you, and you start cleaning her? Mind you, the same warning goes to you, the _other_ teenage male in the house."

Kai ducked his head as he felt the heat returning to his face—and not the cool 'I'm going to breathe fire' kind. "Fine."

Which was how he found himself alone with an unconscious Ayah covered in only a towel.

Ray all but ran from the room when Kai came in. Kai didn't blame him. Even covered with a towel, he had seen what was beneath, and there was nothing to stop the images from popping in his head. So he distracted himself by checking the temperature of the water and her pulse. It was slow and not as strong as he would like, but her breath puffed out well enough on the back of his wet palm. He ended up holding the bottle of shampoo stupidly for only God knew how long. He had never cleaned someone else's hair before, let alone someone with as much hair as her. What if he pulled on it? What if he hurt her or didn't get all the soap out?

Realizing how stupid he sounded, he growled himself into action, squirting out the shampoo in the palm of his hand and slapping it to the top of her head.

Which woke Ayah with a start. Though not very energetically. Still, he flinched as well.

She looked up at him with heavy-lidded eyes that were glazed with sleep. Her lips parted to say something, but only a breath came out. He allowed himself a few seconds to be caught like a deer in the spotlight before steeling himself and setting to work rubbing the shampoo into her hair. After only a few strokes, her eyes had closed again and she made something half way between a weak purr and a sigh. Even though it was barely audible, it made every hair on his body stand on end.

Much squirts of shampoo later, he managed to get her hair clean of the slime and set to work doing her feathers. He wasn't surprised to find they felt much like his own. Feathers were just feathers. By the time Ray came in with a steaming pot of what smelled like rice gruel, Kai had exhausted himself with scrubbing on only one wing.

"Here, I'll take over," said Ray. "You try to get her to eat some of this. I mixed some of that protein shake Tyson got a few months back."

Oh. That stuff. Tyson had voiced his envy of Kai's physic. Rather than listen to everyone telling him that he just didn't have the same body type and genes as Kai (as the Japanese were just genetically smaller than the eastern Europeans overall), he had bought a giant canister of chocolate whey protein. Again ignoring the warnings of the others that binging on protein milkshakes would just constipate him, or worse, cram up his kidneys, Tyson did a grueling three day exercise regime in which he ate almost nothing but protein shakes. After a constipation experience from hell with no muscle to show for it, not to mention a considerable lack of real food, Tyson decided to pretend that he had never seen the canister and grew deaf whenever someone else brought it up.

Kai, who lived nearby, had quite the amusing time watching from a distance. He had his secrets for building muscle, though yes, being a little Japanese boy also didn't work in Tyson's favor.

He took the pot from Ray with shaking arms, suddenly very glad that Tyson had such a stupid idea. If anyone needed the extra energy, it would be Ayah, as well as himself. Still, it gave the rice gruel a muddy, unappetizing sort of look.

"I added a bit of tapioca flavoring, so it shouldn't taste too bad," said Ray apologetically.

"You did good," said Kai, meaning it.

Ray smiled. Then he gave a long-suffering sigh to the bottle of shampoo and Ayah's sleeping form.

As Ray pulled over the far-side wing, Kai patted Ayah's cheek, calling her name. She made a displeased whimper, once more on the edge of hearing, but opened her tired eyes.

"I have food," he said. As he expected, it was enough to get her attention. The tips of her wings twitched and she attempted to raise one of her arms from the tub, but only managed to dislodge the towel from one of her breasts, to Ray's dismay, before her eyes started to close.

Apprehensive, he patted her cheek a little harder. "Come on. If you don't stay awake you won't get food. If you can't move, just open your mouth."

She wrinkled her nose in obvious disgust at the idea, which for some reason made Kai smile. Perhaps it was because he could understand losing such dignity all too well. But it didn't last long and she opened her mouth. He pulled down a towel to prop her head up more, then, after setting the towel beneath the water back in place so Ray would stop fidgeting, he raised the first spoonful of gruel to his lips to test the temperature. Only then did he feel the full depth of how out of place he was.

 _I've never fed anyone before._ What if he just ended up getting food all over her? What if he couldn't get the spoon in her mouth? What if he choked her? What if he just made an overall fool of himself?

He slammed the thoughts closed, just as he had with the fire, and lifted the tolerably warm food to her mouth. It went down well enough and she swallowed. No teeth had been broken. He hadn't had to stuff the whole spoon in either. He didn't feel like he would rather melt through the earth either. The second, third, and fourth spoonful went, and he found, to his surprise, that this wasn't all that unpleasant. It was strangely…satisfying to see her gulp it down so readily while knowing the hunger he was satisfying. He was easing her pain. He was helping. An overwhelming rush of warmth flooded through him. He liked this. He liked helping her.

And like a thunderclap, it hit him that he wanted her to be happy. He wanted it more badly than he ever had for another being in his life, if he ever had felt it before.

A squeak and splash threw water over him and the gruel as Ray slipped and fell face first into the tub. He scrambled up like he had slipped into poison instead of water, gasping. Kai, a little high on the strange giddy warmth, chuckled

"Does the kitty not like water?" Kai asked.

"Oh don't talk like you're not equally uncomfortable. Aw gosh, do we have to scrub the rest of her?"

"Most men would jump at the chance to do that."

"Yeah, if they get to jerk off while doing it."

"….Hn."

"What was that?"

"That was me being polite to said lady, who is hearing everything you say."

Ray's face blanched and turned so red, it almost reached a purple. He made a closed mouth squeak and stalwartly pulled up a leg to start scrubbing her feet.

In all honesty, Kai thought it was likely Ayah was too taken over by hunger like he had been to even comprehend anything that was being said. He himself had been vaguely aware that Tyson and Ray had been talking about the entire time while cleaning him, but once he had started eating he hadn't paid much attention.

Ray had smartly made a very large pot of gruel. By the time Kai had finished feeding it to Ayah, Ray had cleaned as much as he was willing to of her and was getting out the towels.

"I called Hillary over from the search to help us out with clothes for her," he said. "I don't think Tyson's wardrobe can take much more depleting."


	9. Confessions Are All About Bad Timing

**To the guest reviewer who asked if I'll still update Monday:** **Here's your answer. ^.^ I hope you like it! Thank you so much for reading.**

 **To the rest of yas, tomorrow is the last day to get your free copies of my published works! Just look up 'T.S. Lowe' on Amazon. Their titles are "Erase Me" and "Out of Duat." AND it would make me foam and choke on said foam and die of delight if you left a review on Amazon telling me what you think. You little sadist you.**

8

Kai all but passed out on his futon once Hillary arrived. Ray and him had left Ayah wrapped up in towels on Tyson's bed and the last thing he thought before giving in to his exhaustion was a plan to go shopping once he came to. After all, man did not live off of rice gruel alone, and with the rate he was working through the food with or without Tyson helping, that was pretty much all that was left.

He found himself rudely awoken when Hillary's cold fingers touched his back. He had reached the depth of sleep that normal people wake up like they're electrocuted, and Hillary was lucky Kai didn't start throwing punches.

"Sorry," she said, and she did look it. "But I made you a shirt. To go around the wings, that is, and…I'm sorry, I…um…"

He didn't have to ask. She had probably been poking his wings and who knows what else long before her stupid cold fingers got to his back and woke him.

"Go away," he grumbled.

"What, not even a thank you?"

"Hn."

Even though Kai did respect Hillary for her competence, he didn't much care what she thought. Being woken up by said person can do that to platonic feelings.

"Oh, did you hear? They found Max!" she said.

That woke him up for just a bit longer.

"How is he?" He had to stop himself from asking _what_ is he.

"I don't know. His mom just called in to say they had found him somewhere at sea and that they were taking him home. Tyson threw up a big stink enough to get a response that Max was alive, but other than that we don't know anything."

That also probably meant that Tyson and his grandfather were home. Even as he thought of it, he could hear the unmistakable noise of Tyson's voice ranting from the other side of the house. Figuring there was nothing else he could do but hope the information was true, he fell back to his stomach and got ready to go back to sleep.

After a few minutes waiting, sleep eluded him. Hillary hadn't left. The only reason he was okay hitting the hay where she could see in the first place was because he was at Tyson's house. Staring at him was a bit too much.

"Go away," he grumbled again.

"What? I'm not doing anything."

He let out a snuff of displeasure from his nose. It felt warmer than usual, and he thought he could smell the precursor to flame. "I can't sleep with you staring at me."

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry….um…"

Another sigh. Ugh. "What?"

"It's nothing, really, I'm sorry for distracting you. I'll just go."

But even as she turned to stand, she hesitated. Kai was starting to get seriously annoyed. Maybe if he really did breathe fire she'd buzz off. If he didn't get to sleep before his stomach woke up, he'd have to endure Tyson's comments on his new appetite as he ate everything within reach.

"Can…can I ask you a question, Kai?"

No. But she was probably going to ask anyways, knowing her. She could be more tenacious than Tyson when she wanted to know something.

"Are you in love with Ayah?"

That threw him for a loop. 1. Why did she think that an important enough question to keep him up when he was this tired? 2. Why did she care? 3. Like hell he would tell her if he did.

"I'm sorry if that's—that's nosey—"

"Then go away already."

He heard the crack of her knuckles as her famous temper kicked in and her fists balled on her lap.

"Jeeze, rude much? It was just an innocent question, you don't have to be completely senseless!"

"Says the one waking me up by poking me like I'm some freaky science exhibition." Afraid he really just _might_ give into the temptation and try snorting fire at her, he grabbed his pillow and pushed himself up, drawing in his massive wings and startling her in the process. Perhaps he'd get more peace up in Tyson's room. Hillary tended to avoid the pigsty like the plague.

"I'm sorry, you don't have to leave, I'm going now!"

But he was already up and moving. His muscles protested at the movement as though he had run across the city. Damn. It would take forever to get back up to his previous level of fitness if just giving Ayah a bath did this to him.

Thankfully, Hillary didn't follow him. Not that he thought she would, but you never knew with Tyson's friends. They were uncomfortably cozy with getting into one another's business. They would all but sleep in the same bed if it weren't for the fact that sleeping in the same bed with Kai would amount to sleeping in the same bed as a porcupine—he'd make sure of it.

It wasn't till he opened the door to Tyson's room that he remembered that he and Ray had left Ayah in Tyson's bed. Even as he squinted at her through the film of sleep, he couldn't find any place to curl up where her white wings hadn't been spread. He couldn't see what Hillary had dressed her in, as they had pulled up the blanket and piled it up and between her wings. Sighing, he eyed the filthy floor and wondered if it would be more effort to go back downstairs than it would be to just find a corner.

"Damn it, Tyson…why do you have to be such a pig…"

Wait…hadn't they set up a little quarters of sort for Ayah in the attic?

He closed the door quietly and looked up at the ceiling at the end of the hall where a string hung. Kai grinned.

"How western of them."

A ladder slid down once he opened the trap door. On finding that his legs would need all the help they could get climbing the ladder, he put his pillow between his wings and back for his new appendages to hold and climbed up. His muscles were burning by the time he reached the top to find a fluffy, white, small brass bed set up in the corner, only seen by the light from beneath him. He could see a lamp next to the bedside. After checking that it worked, he pulled up the trapdoor, switched off the lamp, and settled down in Ayah's bed for some serious hibernation.

When his stomach woke him with an awful cramp of hunger, the pitch blackness temporarily confused him. But it only took him a second to remember and start pawing for the lamp. Leaving it on, he went to the trap door and let the ladder slide down. The dim lighting of the hallway below told him it was night.

He gave an inward sigh of satisfaction. Perfect.

Before he started anything, he checked the kitchen for food, but it must be the same day as nothing had changed. He checked the dojo to see Tyson and Ray sleeping in their futons, Kai's left alone in its corner. A little folded lump had been left on the pillow. On closer inspection, he found what could only be the shirt Hillary had made, and he felt just a twinge of guilt. But then it wasn't anything incredibly inventive. It was just a man's shirt that had had the majority of its back cut out and replaced with a sort of tie or halter on the back of the neck. He had to step into it, as nothing would go over the mass of his wings. Then he slipped his arms into the long sleeves and tied the top about his neck. It was of a darker color, like he liked it. Either way, it was nice to finally have his torso covered.

Time for some food hunting in the big world.


	10. Awkward Answers

**so sleepy...**

9

First, a cover.

He checked the closet and found an ugly, but huge off-white trench coat he suspected came from Grandpa Granger's earlier years. It smelled of mothballs and mold, but once he had squeezed his wings to his back, it covered him readily and nearly reached the floor. It was a good thing he had lost so much weight. He could just barely move his arms in the sleeves.

His stomach panged, making his knees tremble at the idea of walking all the way to his apartment, but he ignored it. It was never a good idea to work out on a full stomach anyways.

But then he saw the glint of the Granger Mobile's key on a hook by the front door and hesitated. It was an awfully long way to walk, and if he was having problems even climbing a ladder…

He slipped off the key, sending a quiet apology to the older man. A Russian driver's license would mean nothing here, but at least he knew something.

Still, his hands sweat as he opened the door and settled into the front seat. He had to adjust the seat to his longer legs. Stinking tiny Japanese.

The coughing start of the motor nearly gave him a heart-attack as it broke across the silence, making him laugh. Crazy genocidal murderers and death, he was a still and cool as stone. Imagining Tyson's grandfather stomping out and yelling at him to get out of his car and suddenly he was a jumpy, guilty teenager.

 _Really_ , he thought as he backed out of the driveway, _Tyson has no idea what he does_.

After all, he had turned a trained killer into an ordinary, teenage boy.

Traffic was all but dead, and the clock on the dashboard told him it was little after five. He maneuvered the streets well enough, though it felt strange to be in a car, especially one as stiff and old as the Granger's Toyota. Exactly twenty minutes later, he pulled into the parking lot of a nondescript apartment complex and turned the motor off. Seeing his home after so long of not being there felt almost as strange as driving the car in the first place.

His apartment was on the third floor on the right end. He jiggled the doorknob, sighed when he realized it was locked and his key in the abyss with his lost cell phone, and went to the window. He pulled out the screen, breathed on his hands so they stuck to the glass, and slid it open.

 _Has my place always smelled so strong of cheap hairspray?_ He thought blithely as he slid in and closed the window behind him. He didn't even use hairspray. Unless he wanted to make a homemade flamethrower.

His home was an ordinary studio apartment. He didn't spend much time in it, other than to sleep, eat, and maybe read a book if it was raining outside, so he didn't see the point of wasting his allowance (or rather, his allotted child support squeezed out of Voltaire by the court) on a big place he'd never be in, so he had gotten himself the basics. The apartment building didn't even have a shower, so he had to go to the local bath house whenever he needed to bathe. Thus, it held only a futon, his school things, several cardboard boxes of books, a tote of beyblading gear, and some hand-dumbbells he used while reading. The kitchen consisted of only a microwave, a sink, some cupboards, and a small fridge.

"I'm home," he muttered.

His stash of cash was right where he had left it: underneath a loose board on the bottom of the cupboards. There were perks to living small, aka, he had more than enough to buy as much food as he could want. He also dug up his old black leather duster, which, if anything, helped him to stand out less than Gramps almost-yellow monstrosity. Not to mention it was a larger size, which gave him room to breathe.

He didn't bother to unlock the door as he left, but he made sure to put the screen back. Honestly, if someone were desperate enough to break into his apartment, not only would they not find anything, but whatever they did take they'd probably need it more than him. He tossed Gramps coat in the back and slid into the front seat of the car as the first rays of dawn grayed the sky.

His stomach gave another nasty twist. He was starting to feel nauseous.

"This whole turning into a bird freak is the pits," he grumbled, practically throwing the poor Toyota into reverse. "It definitely makes sitting in a car a pain. Damn, does this seat go back any farther?"

If he was lucky, no one would look too closely at him at the spill of red wings all across the cab. He'd have to be a little sneaky on getting out.

As he pulled up to the chain grocery store and went about pushing his newborn wings tighter and tighter beneath his duster, his thoughts played about his future. Tyson had been right on calling Kai out on his pessimism, though only in part. While Kai did have his fortune to inherit when his grandfather should finally die, there was no saying how many years were in-between now and then. Kai had graduated school a year early, with honors, even, and had colleges even in the States trying to woo him, and there were ways he could get his education and find a career while keeping his wings hidden. But it wasn't like it was a particularly happy thought either. Even in his spacious duster he felt cramped and edgy. He had never been comfortable out in society when he was normal, and now he could hardly walk down the ales of the stupid empty grocery store without wanting to run for it. What kind of life was that? Sure, he might be able to fly one day, but he'd have to do that even in secret. And if Dranzer really was gone for good, combined with his own spirit…his beyblade days were officially over.

He had been getting too old for that anyways, he told himself. Still, if he didn't even have beyblading to look forward to…

No one was awake when he walked into the Granger Dojo with what bags he had deemed most important. He had scarfed down a few breakfast monjus at the grocer, so at least his legs weren't about to crumple beneath him, but he still could feel his mouth watering as he pulled out the slabs of bacon and ham. He also pulled out various fruits and a kind of shake he had found in the health section for those trying to gain weight—usually meant for children recovering from illness or the elderly. He took one, dug out a straw, and headed upstairs as quietly as he could.

Inside Tyson's room, Ayah was just as he had seen her last: laying on her stomach, swathed in blankets, with her somewhat fragile looking white wings crumpled about her. Soft morning sunlight seeped through the blinds like fingers, painting gold stripes across her face and the wall.

He did his best to dodge the majority of mess as he went to her bedside and shook her gently.

"Ayah." Her name stirred the warm feeling from the night before like a stick stirring coals from the ashes. "Ayah, I got food."

She groaned and her eyes fluttered open. She looked at him for a few seconds without recognition, then she gave a sleepy huff, her eyebrows puckering as though in pain.

"Kai, I can't—I'm stuck." Even her voice panged with humiliation.

It bemused him how much hearing that affected him. Frowning, he put the shake and straw on the bedside table and reached for her. He had to dig one of his arms beneath her shoulders and collarbone, but she managed to have enough strength to slide her knees up so he could turn her about and lean her against the headboard. After pulling one feathery wing out from behind her so she didn't have them twisted uncomfortably to one side, he lifted up the smoothie.

"You should be able to feed yourself this. Just takes a straw."

Her eyes shivered on the proffered bottle. She blinked hard, lifted up her hands tentively before they collapsed back to her sides.

Then she did the next worse thing that could happen to Kai.

She burst into tears.

"I can't even lift up my arms," she whimpered. "And that stuff is for old dying people—am I dying? Oh, I hope so. I've never been so embarrassed in my life."

Kai didn't do comforting. He didn't do tears. His only remedy for those, no matter the age or sex, was a slap upside the head and a command to grow up. Life was suffering. And, compared to Kai, most people were spoiled from infancy.

But he couldn't very well slap her and tell her to get over it. He already knew what kind of feelings that incited in his teammates. She was more delicate than that, and he understood how painful shattered pride could be. At the end of the day, his pride was all he had.

"It—it, um…I-I wasn't much better," he managed to get out, wincing at his stutter. Kai Hiwatari did _not_ stutter. "The weakness passes after some food and sleep. It probably wouldn't be so bad if you hadn't spent up so much of your energy healing people."

She shook her head weakly, squeezing her eyes shut against the huge fat tears pouring down her cheeks. "You and Ray saw me naked. You had to even clean me and dress me and—oh…" Unable to lift her hands all the way to her face, she bowed her neck as far as it could go and met her hand half way to hide behind curtains of curling white hair.

A blush tickled across Kai's cheeks, but he ignored it. This wasn't the time for him to get embarrassed too.

"It's no big deal," he started, then decided he really didn't have anything else to say that wouldn't be a lie. "Look, just drink this and—"

"What does 'jerk off' even mean?"

The blush exploded through his blockade. It wasn't even a blush, it was more like a lava plume taking up his skull. "Uh…"

"And poor Ray sounded so disgusted, and who wouldn't be? I must have looked like a hatched alien or something from a horror film!"

Kai felt no need to tell her she must have missed the first part of their conversation when Ray complained about her being appealing even covered in slime, and how it was making it hard for him to walk. He didn't need her to revisit the 'jerk off' question.

More uncomfortable than ever, he quickly twisted off the cap from the smoothie, stuffed the straw in, and pushed it into her lap. He then reached down and shoved a spare pillow that had been left there to prop it up a bit higher.

"You weren't disgusting," he managed to push out.

"You know I can hear you lying, right? You're heart rate is doing the galloping thing."

"Then you're hearing wrong." And because it wouldn't leave his head, along with the fear she should ask the question to one of the others and get them assuming, he added, "And proof? 'Jerk off' is a word for masturbating."

She gave a noisy little hiccup. "Masturbating?"

Oh god, he was not having this conversation. "Drink your smoothie, damn it."

And afraid the fire in his gut might try to burn out of every orifice and pore on his face, he scuttled out and yanked the door close behind him.

He never wanted to tear out his vocal chords more in his whole life. Wasn't putting their foot in their mouths Tyson's specialty? When had Kai become so…so…

Screw it. He was going to make himself a huge breakfast, eat it all so Tyson couldn't have any, and then find somewhere far, far away where no one could find him. Maybe, when he woke up, he'd actually have the strength to care about showing his face around here again.


	11. Time to Move On

10

Ray shuffled in scratching his belly just as Kai managed to burn his first attempt at cooking bacon. He chuckled as Kai coughed and threw open every window in the kitchen.

"Oh essence of the flame, may I help you manage the stove?"

"Shut up." He threw the bacon into the trashcan just to regret it as the bacon and grease melted through the trash bag. He cussed and threw the pan into the sink with a clang.

"For the future, cooking on a high setting doesn't make it go any faster. It just burns things," said Ray.

Kai rolled his eyes and picked gingerly at the half filled, half melted trash bag. Crud, some of it had melted to the side of the trash bin. Ugh. And it smelled. He'd have to take the whole thing out.

"You take care of that. I'll cook." Ray stepped past him to pluck the pan out of the sink. He frowned at the countertops filled with food. "You get this all yourself?"

"Hn." Kai hefted the trashcan up, hating every second that it felt like lifting weights. He allowed himself to slump a bit more out by the curb, where he tossed the sack into the burnable trash and peeled off the melted plastic from inside, then gave up and just figured the Grangers wouldn't mind if their white, cheap trash can had a few blemishes.

Back inside, Ray was already poking away at a little plain of sizzling bacon, his lazily tied back hair fuzzy from a night of sleep. He gave Kai a morning smile as he went to dig the blender out for a protein shake.

"At least you got the rice right," he said, gesturing to the steaming rice cooker with his chin.

"Are you enjoying my ineptitude?"

"No, I'm trying to be encouraging."

 _You're being an ass,_ Kai wanted to say, but thought better of it. He did, after all, like Ray. He didn't have any reason to care whether or not Ray, who had grown up working in restaurants, thought it amusing that he couldn't cook. It wasn't that he couldn't, Kai just didn't. As mentioned before, he didn't even have a stove in his house. On the off season that he wasn't at his boarding school, where they took care of all the food, he lived off of a diet of microwave meals and whatever he could find for cheap around town.

He found the blender and got to work throwing fruit and Tyson's abandoned whey protein together. At least that didn't take any special skills.

"Be sure to make Ayah something first," said Kai before turning on the blender.

"She awake?" Ray asked the moment Kai turned it off.

"Hn." _And perhaps traumatized because you couldn't keep your mouth closed while helping her_. Damn it, why did he care? It was nothing anyone could have helped. And the only difference between Ray and his reaction to caring for her naked body was that Kai had thought better than to try and have some sort of manly bonding over it or whatever the hell Ray had been doing.

Kai found a seat at the table, readjusted his seat so his tail feathers could poke out the back of the chair, and settled into his shake.

Really…he shouldn't care so much. After all, if he really did want Ayah to be happy, he'd keep himself as distant as possible from her. Ray, hell, anyone was more suited to making her happy than Kai was.

As though the universe sought to frustrate his thoughts, Ray pushed the full plate of fried rice, mixed with all sorts of egg and baconny goodness, in front of Kai.

"Could you take this up to her? I think I heard Tyson's snoring stop."

Kai sighed heavily. He wanted to call Ray out on being a momma hen again, but took the plate anyways. Against his better knowledge, he wanted to do this. The protectiveness within him whispered that he could understand her humiliation better than the others, but that just confused him.

He was still confused when he walked into a yawning, frumpy Tyson, who eyed the plate with a wide, sleepy smile.

"Aw, Kai, you shouldn't've!"

Tyson reached for the plate, but Kai raised it out of his reach.

"This is for Ayah." He hesitated. "Can you go help her eat this?"

Tyson blinked. Then gave a wide smile. "'Course! Oni-tan to the rescue!"

Kai brought the plate back down, somewhat reluctantly, and allowed Tyson to pluck it up and skip away with it.

For the uptenth time that morning, Kai sighed, then leaned back on the wall. It still felt weird to have a thick cushion of feathers and his own flesh separating him from his habitual stance.

He needed to get away from here. Clear his head. If Tyson and Ray were so chipper, Max had to be okay. Besides, he could always keep tabs from a distance. He had to figure out his college situation anyways, and who knew what else.

Kai closed his eyes, listening to the homey hiss of Ray's cooking and the murmur of Tyson's voice upstairs. Right. Time to move on. He had a life that was going on without him…right?

Something within him ached. It wasn't anything new.

"Morning, K-man."

Grandpa Granger was coming down the hallway, tightening his usual practice pants for kendo with a bamboo sword over his shoulder. He gave Kai a cheesy wink before putting the sword point first on the ground and resting his palms over the hilt.

"You're looking especially freaky this morning," he said.

…Definitely time to move on. Guess he'd pick up his second half of breakfast on the way. Ugh.

"Thank you for letting me stay," Kai said. "I think I'll be heading home."

"Right-o, home skillet. You know you're welcome to my crib anytime."

Kai did his best to smile politely, but it probably came out more like a straight-lip grimaced as it often did when he tried to smile. He gave the elder Granger a polite bow of gratitude, then headed towards the door.

"Yo, ain't you going to say good-bye to Ayah?"

Kai just shrugged and went to pull on his boots. His leather duster waited for him by the door with whatever remained of the cash he grabbed that morning in one of its pockets.

"I hope you be extra special about that sweet pretty thing. Don't tell the little dude about this, but I think she's tak'n a special shining to you, you dig?"

Kai's fingers froze twined in his laces. His stomach had done the strangest, most disconcerting jump at those words. It was almost as though it had been trying to dislodge his lungs, for he even found himself catching his breath.

Then he let it all out and continued tying, the feeling smothered. Even if it was true, it could never happen. Not with him.

He stood and wrapped the trench coat about, shifting his wings to keep them out of sight, and stepped out into the breaking day.

 **Coming up! We wrap up the story with Kai checking in on the last surviving member of the BlitzKrieg boys. Squishy feelings and shivs to ensue.**


	12. The Lone Wolf

11

Tala had his face towards the sunlight streaking across his hospital room. Kai knew Tala was aware of his presence the moment he stepped in. Unable to sit comfortably without displaying his mass of feathers, he picked the wall opposite of his bed and leaned against it. The leather gave little creaks as he folded his arms across his chest.

Tala's blue eyes flashed to him for only a moment before looking back to the sun. "You've lost weight rather quickly. Been sick?"

"You could say so." Kai tugged out the warped, melted form of Dranzer's blade and tossed it to him on the bed. "Any chance you could get me a new skiv when you get out?"

Tala stared down at the once gleaming glory of his Dranzer. The corners of his mouth cut into his face.

"Good God…that's…damn it, Kai, that's high-heat resistant alloy." He touched the blade, as though touching a corpse. "Does this perchance have anything to do with why you were sick?"

"Perhaps. Yes or no?"

"So demanding." He gave the attack ring a ginger tug just to hiss as a wayward edge of still sharp metal cut into his nail. He stuck his thumb into his mouth.

"You good with the same deal as before?" Kai asked.

"Technically you saved my life, lack of manners or not."

"We weren't trained to be good dinner guests." But now it came to the real reason why he had come. "Why didn't you tell me? When you were taken."

Tala snorted. "Dear me, you make me sound like a kidnapped virgin. You know you're the only one who will be deflowering me."

Kai sighed and gave his old teammate his most dead pan glare. He wasn't in the mood for Tala's joking. He had just spent half his food budget allowance on breakfast alone and his legs were still shaking from having walked from the front door of the hospital.

Tala let it slide off him like dew off fur, though, and took up the twisted metal with a critical eye. Kai knew he could see the blank yellow of the bit beast piece, but must have decided not to say anything about it.

After a few more seconds filled with the noise of the hospital staff moving about outside the door and traffic far below the window, Tala lowered the blade. His expression was unreadable, as all of them had learned was best from an early age.

"I may not be a part of your cute BladeBreakers, but that doesn't mean I wanted to lead him right to you."

"Don't give me that. You could have let me know easily without catching his attention. It wasn't like it was much there to begin with."

The red-haired teen humphed in his throat and closed his eyes, a wry smile playing against the flat plain of his high cheeks. "I thought I would at least try. It's funny you think I'd actually care to tell you. What are you, my mommy?"

"A warning would have been nice, but fine, yes. For this conversation, I'm your mommy. Why'd you go out and get yourself cut up by the bad kids, Tommy?"

"Woa, sarcasm. Can your lack of humor get any more scary?"

"If you're refusing to answer the question just say so and I'll wait for my blade. I figured I'd at least pretend we'd been friends."

Tala, still molded and frozen from their Siberian past, stared. He hadn't the presence of Tyson or any of the others to thaw him, so hearing the word 'friends' so raw and blunt threw him off. Even having accepted his teammates as his new family, old Abbey friends weren't exactly great at helping you get out of your anti-social, cold, murderous issues. They were busy enough dealing with it themselves.

Only respect for Tala's pride stopped Kai from laughing. Lord, it felt good to be on this side. He knew putting up with Granger's crap for all these years would amount to something.

"Friends?" said Tala faintly. "Since when...Like I'd do something so—grow up."

"Big kids have friends too, Tommy," he said, drunk on this new adventure. "If you'd just let me know maybe I could have done something about…the others…"

All good feelings left when he said that, as quickly as they came. Guilt took their place as he could see it twist, dark and unfathomable, on Tala's face.

But that was why he had come. He knew those feelings wouldn't go away, and he also knew Tala had nothing to keep him from doing the stupid once he left the supervision of the hospital. Trained in the art of merciless killing, suicide would be as easy as sniffing. It would be inevitable.

Which meant Kai would have to deal with being uncomfortable. He was all Tala had now.

He dropped his arms. "Look, I…we suck at talking about this sort of shit, so I'm going to be blunt. After the others were killed I don't see any other reason for you to keep on living, and yet you did. You didn't get a hold of me, which I have theories too, and then you saved my life. Your actions say we're friends, and I'm here to just make it clear that…" he cleared his throat, looking at everything besides Tala. "That we were before you did all that. And, if you don't have anywhere to go—" No, he had to come clean with this. He had to bite down hard. "No, I'd rather if you'd move in with me. You don't do good alone."

When nothing happened and no sound come from the wolf, Kai dared to take a peek at him. From the extreme angle his eyebrows and mouth had made, he wouldn't have been surprised if the wolf launched from his bed and attacked him. He was just thinking he should leave before Tala did just that (and because his face was getting annoyingly hot), when Tala spoke.

"Can I think on it?"

A breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding rushed out from him, more loudly than he had intended. Tala's face relaxed as a bit of humor lit up his glacial eyes and Kai scrambled to gather up his dignity, now running all over the floor like escaped marbles.

"My address and number," he snapped out a card and tossed it onto the hospital bed alongside his blade. "It's cramped, but if you're not a lazy ass and get a job, we can fix that."

"Says the man who walked in here and demanded I supply him with another shiv beyblade," said Tala, mirth scenting the edge of his words. "I could always say make your own blade, you lazy ass."

"Ha ha. When can I expect your reply?"

Tala hesitated. Then, glancing at the card, he said, as though it were admitting an embarrassing weakness, "The hospital will release me in another week. Expect it then."

Kai gave a curt nod, and now that his business was concluded, he made his move to flee.

"Hiwatari."

That stopped him just at the door.

"Thank you."

"Hn." And with that, he left, wiping his sweating hands against his sides.

Maybe he should have mentioned the wings? He had just turned into a creature like unto Cain, who had killed Tala's teammates. Kai had meant to mention it, but somehow, on seeing the look on his face as he said to let him think on it, Kai realized that the artificially enhanced human would be the last one to have problems with Kai turning into a freak, relation to Cain or otherwise. Asking if he would be okay with it would have probably insulted him, and Kai needed him to stay.

He wasn't that strong to begin with.

 **Thank you reading! Book 5 will be out next week on Monday, per usual. ^.^ Please let me know what you thought, good or bad. It's so fun to hear from you, especially since the beyblade fandom has gotten so small. There's not very many of us, are there?**


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